Electronic program guide for indicating availability of past programs

ABSTRACT

A system and method for providing an electronic program guide for television or radio programs includes presenting listing of present or future programs on-screen, presenting listings of past programs on-screen and indicating whether the past program is available again at a future time. Also, a system and method for handling information controllable from an electronic program guide for television or radio programs comprises receiving information in a user&#39;s system, storing the received information in the user&#39;s system, displaying access to the stored information by means of a user interface and enabling the user to select one of a plurality of management options for controlling the operation of the stored information through the user interface.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of Ser. No. 13/570,019,filed Aug. 8, 2012, which is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 10/474,089, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,266,649, filed May 14, 2004,which is a national stage of International Patent Application No.PCT/GB02/01557, filed Apr. 3, 2002, which claims priority benefit under35 U.S.C. §119 from Great Britain Patent Application No. 0108355.9,filed Apr. 3, 2001, and Great Britain Patent Application No. 0204478.2,filed Feb. 26, 2002. The aforementioned, earlier-filed applications arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

The present invention relates to an improved electronic program guide(EPG) for a television or radio system. The present invention, infurther embodiments, also relates to a system for handling informationcontrollable from an EPG, particularly but not exclusively for aset-top-box (STB) connected within a television or radio system.

Many electronic program guide (EPG) systems have emerged over the pastfew years. These display listings information for television or radioprograms to assist users to plan their television viewing or radiolistening for the coming few days. Such systems may provide a recordfunction whereby a user highlights and selects on-screen a portion oflisting information, thereby to activate a record or watch or listen(for radio) function for the program selected by the user. Such systemsmay also provide a means for receiving targeted advertising provided bythe service provider in the form of advertisements being sent to theuser's system and displayed in the EPG.

In the case of a user selecting a record function, the system maycontrol a recording device (e.g. VCR, PVR, DVD, audio-cassette, MiniDiscor DAT recorder) to record the desired program on the right channel andat the right time. In the case of a user selecting a watch function, thesystem may cause an icon or reminder message to be displayed on thetelevision screen a short while before the desired program is to bebroadcast. Alternatively the system may cause an audible alarm to besounded.

The effectiveness of finding and recording or watching a desired programin this way depends upon on the ease of use of the particular EPG andupon a user's inclination to consult it properly. With even the mostuser friendly EPG, users often forget or cannot spare time to browsedesired programs. In order to solve this problem and provide moresophisticated functionality, some EPGs infer programs of interest tousers and record them without any user intervention. Inferences are madeby inviting users to rate program titles displayed within the EPGaccording to whether they are explicitly of interest. An alternative,implicit approach infers programs of interest by monitoring whetherprograms possessing similar characteristics were viewed in the past. Ineither case, a rating algorithm is employed by the EPG system to decidewhether each program carried within the EPG listings data is ofsufficient interest to warrant recording. Such methods increase thelikelihood that a desired program will be recorded. However, thesesystems are not infallible and often fail to record programs reliablyand may either be too indiscriminate or miss specific programs ofinterest.

An object of the invention is to provide an electronic program guidewith improved functionality.

A further preferred embodiment of the present invention is directed toproviding an improved EPG for a television or radio system in whichnon-volatile means is provided to record programs or data, such asadvertising data or general information, for subsequent viewing.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provideda system for providing an electronic program guide for television orradio programs that includes:

-   -   means for presenting listings of present or future programs        on-screen;    -   means for presenting listings of past programs on-screen and    -   means, associated with the on-screen listings of past programs,        for indicating whether the past program is available again at a        future time.

In this way, users can identify programs desired for watching orrecording based upon those they have missed in the recent past. This isadvantageous, because with the continuing trend towards increasingnumbers of channels, there are growing probabilities that a missedprogram will be repeated in the not too distant future, either on thesame channel or on a different one. Hence, by linking a past programwithin the EPG to future repeats of that program, viewers can readilyidentify and select a future program based on a missed past program.

The means indicative of the availability of the past program at a laterdate, may be operable to highlight within the on-screen listings of pastprograms, programs that are to be repeated.

Preferably, means are provided for receiving a user selection of a pastprogram. Means responsive to the user selection may be provided forgenerating options for the user to select. The options may includerecord or watch functions. Means may be provided so that on selection ofthe record function, the system is automatically set to cause a repeatof the selected past program to be recorded. Means may be provided sothat on selection of the watch function, the system is automatically setto notify the viewer when a repeat of the selected past program is aboutto be broadcast.

The guide may be presented in a grid format, with time along one axis ofthe grid and channel along another axis of the grid. Time is preferablyalong a horizontal axis of the grid and channel is preferably along avertical axis of the grid.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provideda computer program, preferably on a data carrier, for providing anelectronic program guide for television or radio programs, the computerprogram including instructions for:

-   -   presenting listings of present or future programs on-screen;    -   presenting listings of past programs on-screen and    -   indicating in association with the on-screen listings of past        programs whether the past program is available again at a future        time.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provideda method for providing an electronic program guide for television orradio programs that includes:

-   -   receiving program listings information;    -   presenting listings of present or future programs;    -   presenting listings of past programs and indicating whether the        past program is available again at a future time.

The step of indicating may involve highlighting in the guide programsthat are to be repeated.

The method also may involve receiving a user selection of a past programand generating options for the user to select. The options may includerecord or watch functions. Preferably on selection of the recordfunction, recording of a repeat of the selected program is setautomatically. On selection of the watch function, the method mayfurther involve automatically notifying the viewer when a repeat of theselected program is about to be broadcast. This may be done bygenerating and presenting an icon a pre-determined time prior to thestart of the program.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provideda system for providing an electronic program guide for television orradio programs that includes:

-   -   means for presenting listings of present or future programs        on-screen;    -   means for presenting listings of past programs on-screen;    -   means for receiving user selections of functions associated with        past programs, for example recording or watching or listening;    -   means for identifying whether the past program is to be repeated        and means for activating the selected function associated with        the past program in the event that the past program is repeated.

The means for identifying whether the past program is to be repeated maycomprises means for searching the past and future listings to determinea match between the listings information.

Means may be provided, associated with the on-screen listings of pastprograms, for indicating whether the past program is available again ata future time.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provideda method for providing an electronic program guide for television orradio programs, the method involving:

-   -   presenting listings of past programs on-screen;    -   receiving user selections of functions associated with past        programs, for example recording or watching or listening;    -   identifying whether the past program is to be repeated; and    -   activating the selected function associated with the past        program in the event that the past program is repeated.

The step of identifying whether the past program is to be repeated maycomprise searching past and future program listings to determine a matchbetween at least part of the listings information. The part of thelistings information compared may be a program and/or episodeidentifier.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provideda computer program, preferably on a data carrier, for providing anelectronic program guide for television or radio programs, the computerprogram comprising instructions for:

-   -   presenting listings of past programs on-screen;    -   receiving user selections of past programs for recording or        watching or listening;    -   identifying whether the past program is to be repeated; and    -   causing the repeat of the past program to be recorded or        notifying the user of the repeat of the past program, in the        event that the past program is repeated.

The instructions for identifying whether the past program is to berepeated may comprise instructions for searching past and future programlistings to determine a match between at least part of the listingsinformation. The part of the listings information compared may be aprogram and/or episode identifier.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a system for providing an electronic program guide fortelevision or radio programs that includes:

-   -   means for presenting listings of present or future programs        on-screen; and    -   means for presenting listings of past programs on-screen.

Preferably, means are provided for identifying past programs, thesemeans preferably comprising means for comparing the stop time ofprograms with real time derived from either a real time clock or adownloaded real time signal, thereby to identify programs that havefinished. Preferably, this is done each time the electronic programguide is accessed by the viewer.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention there is provideda system for handling information controllable from an EPG fortelevision or radio programs, the system comprising:

-   -   means for receiving information in a user's system;    -   means for storing the received information in the user's system;    -   means for displaying access to the stored information by means        of a user interface; and    -   control means for enabling the user to select one of a plurality        of management options for controlling the operation of the        stored information through the user interface.

Preferably, the means for storing the received information is Flashmemory, DRAM, a non-volatile storage such as a hard disk or an opticalstorage device.

Preferably, the means for receiving the information is an aerial,satellite, cable or ADSL receiver.

Preferably, the system further comprises means for erasing storedinformation from the means for storing the information.

In a preferred embodiment, the system further comprises means forautomatically deleting stored information from the means for storing theinformation, preferably in response to detection of insufficient storagespace for recordal of desired information.

Preferably, the system further comprises means for categorising receivedinformation, for example according to subject matter, date of receipt orstorage of the information by the system, or channel on which theinformation was transmitted. In the preferred embodiment, the means forcategorising further comprises allocating a colour identifier todifferent categories of stored information.

Preferably, the system further comprises means for searching the storedinformation, for example, according to date of receipt or storage of theinformation by the system, subject matter, or channel on which theinformation was transmitted.

Preferably, the system further comprises means for displaying a portionof the stored information in the user interface on selection ofassociated stored information by the user.

In a preferred embodiment, the means for receiving information isadapted to receive information provided by a service provider, or theuser.

Preferably, the system further comprises means for presenting listingsof present or future programs on-screen, means for presenting listingsof past programs on-screen and means associated with the on-screenlistings of past programs for indicating whether or not the past programis available again at a future time.

In this way, users can identify programs desired for watching orrecording based upon those they have missed in the recent past. This isadvantageous, because with the continuing trend towards increasingnumbers of channels, there are growing probabilities that a missedprogram will be repeated in the not too distant future, either on thesame channel or on a different one. Hence, by linking a past programwithin the EPG to future repeats of that program, viewers can readilyidentify and select a future program based on a missed past program.

The means indicative of the availability of the past program at a laterdate, may be operable to highlight within the on-screen listings of pastprograms, programs that are to be repeated.

Preferably, means are provided for receiving a user selection of a pastprogram. Means responsive to the user selection may be provided forgenerating options for the user to select. The options may includerecord or watch functions. Means may be provided so that on selection ofthe record function, the system is automatically set to cause a repeatof the selected past program to be recorded. Means may be provided sothat on selection of the watch function, the system is automatically setto notify the viewer when a repeat of the selected past program is aboutto be broadcast.

The guide may be presented in a grid format, with time along one axis ofthe grid and channel along another axis of the grid. Time is preferablyalong a horizontal axis of the grid and channel is preferably along avertical axis of the grid.

Preferably, the system further comprises means for identifying whetherthe past program is to be repeated and means for activating the selectedfunction associated with the past program in the event that the pastprogram is repeated.

The means for identifying whether the past program is to be repeated maycomprise means for searching the past and future listings to determine amatch between the listings information.

Means may be provided, associated with the on-screen listings of pastprograms, for indicating whether the past program is available again ata future time.

According to a ninth aspect of the invention there is provided a methodfor handling information controllable from an EPG for television orradio programs, the method comprising:

-   -   receiving information in a user's system;    -   storing the received information in the user's system;    -   displaying access to the stored information by means of a user        interface; and    -   controlling the selection of one of a plurality of management        options for controlling the operation of the stored information        through the user interface.

Preferably, system further comprises means for displaying information,preferably visual, relevant to the status of the stored information,such as whether or not the information has been viewed by the user,and/or whether or not the user has elected to keep or delete storedinformation, and/or viewing duration of stored information, and/or theprogress of viewed information.

Various systems and methods in which the invention is embodied will nowbe described by way of example only and with reference to theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a television system;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a television that is adapted to provide aretrospective EPG;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a set top box that is adapted to provide aretrospective EPG;

FIG. 4 is an example of a program listing datum;

FIG. 5 shows the program listing datum of FIG. 4, including a pointer toa future television program;

FIG. 6 is an example of a retrospective EPG that is in a grid format;

FIG. 7 shows an example of an onscreen display that is presented when aviewer selects the search option in the EPG of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 shows an example of an on-screen display that is presented when aviewer selects the “all” option in the on-screen display of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 shows an example of an on-screen display that is presented when aviewer selects the “football” option in the on-screen display of FIG. 7;

FIG. 10 shows an example of an on-screen display that is presented whena viewer selects the “missed” option in the EPG of FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 shows an on-screen display that is presented when a viewerselects the “schedule” option in the EPG of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is an example of an on-screen display presented when viewing thehome page of an EPG embodying a further aspect of the invention wherethe “Telecast” mode is selected;

FIGS. 13 and 13 a are examples of an on-screen display of the EPG inFIG. 12 in “Telecast” mode with the “Past” sub-mode selected with one ofa list of program titles in focus;

FIG. 13 b is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG in FIG. 12 in“Telecast” mode with the “Past” sub-mode with one of a list of programtitles in focus that changed the colour due to a scheduled recording;

FIG. 14 is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 12 in“My TV” mode with the “Catalogue” sub-mode selected;

FIG. 14 a is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 12 in“My TV” mode and “Catalogue” sub-mode with one of a list of programtitles in focus;

FIG. 14 b is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 12 in“My TV” mode and “Catalogue” sub-mode with one of a list of seriestitles in focus;

FIG. 14 c is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 12 in“My TV” mode and “Catalogue” sub-mode with one of a list of episodestitles in focus;

FIG. 14 d is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 12 in“My TV” mode and “Catalogue” sub-mode with one of a list of episodestitles in focus after the “keep” action has been activated;

FIG. 14 e is a further example of an on-screen display of the EPG ofFIG. 12 in “My TV” mode and “Catalogue” sub-mode with one of a list ofepisodes titles in focus;

FIG. 14 f is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 12 in“My TV” mode and “Catalogue” sub-mode with one of a list of episodestitles in focus after the “up” action has been activated;

FIG. 15 is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 12 in“My TV” mode and “Catalogue” sub-mode with one of a list of programtitles in focus after the “Erase” action has been activated;

FIG. 16 is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 12 in“My TV” mode and “Catalogue” sub-mode with one of the status icons infocus;

FIG. 16 a is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 14 bin “My TV” mode and “Catalogue” sub-mode with one of a list of episodestitles in focus after the OK button was pressed on a series title (shownin FIG. 14 b);

FIG. 17 is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 14 in“My TV” mode and “Catalogue” sub-mode with the “Unused” cell in focus;

FIGS. 18 and 18 a are examples of an on-screen display of the EPG ofFIG. 14 with the “Theme” action selected with a theme sub-category cellin focus;

FIG. 18 b is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 18 awith the “Theme” action selected and after a theme sub-category has beenselected;

FIG. 19 is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 14 withthe “Date” action selected with the option “All” being in focus;

FIGS. 19 a, 19 b and 19 c are examples of an on-screen display of theEPG of FIG. 19 with further “Date” options selected;

FIGS. 20 and 21 a are examples of an on-screen display of the EPG ofFIG. 14 with the “Channel” action selected with a particular channelcell in focus;

FIG. 21 b is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 21 awith a specific channel having been selected and with a program titlecell in focus;

FIG. 22 is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 14 withthe “Box Office” sub-mode selected;

FIG. 22 a is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 14with the “Box Office” sub-mode selected and a particular program titlecell in focus;

FIG. 23 is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 14 withthe “Info” sub-mode selected;

FIGS. 23 a, 23 b, 23 c and 23 i are examples of on-screen displays ofthe EPG of FIG. 23 as a result of the selection of various articles;

FIG. 23 d is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 12with the link in FIG. 23 c selected and with the focus on the programmetitle cell of the selected link;

FIG. 23 e is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 12where the link in FIG. 23 c was selected resulting in the informationpanel being expanded for the description of the selected program titlecell;

FIG. 23 f is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 12with the link in FIG. 23 i selected and with the focus on the linkedadvertisement panel;

FIG. 23 g is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 23with the “Info” sub-mode selected and with the focus on a sub-category;

FIG. 23 h is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 23 gwith the “Info” sub-mode selected displaying articles of a chosensub-category with the focus on the top article;

FIG. 23 j is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 23with the “Info” sub-mode selected displaying articles of a chosensub-category with the focus on the top article;

FIGS. 24 and 25 are examples of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG.23 with the “Info” sub-mode selected, and with the focus on asub-category;

FIG. 26 is an example of an on-screen display of the EPG of FIG. 23 withthe “Info” sub-mode selected displaying articles and sub-categories of achosen sub-category;

FIG. 27 is a block schematic of a personal video recorder (PVR) systemfor use with the EPG system embodying the invention;

FIG. 28 is a block schematic of the individual function elements of thePVR of FIG. 27.

The retrospective electronic program guide in which the invention in afirst aspect is embodied allows a viewer to see listings for programsthat were broadcast in the past. It additionally links past broadcaststo future repeats of the past broadcast, thereby enabling viewers toeasily identify when a repeat of a missed program is to be broadcast. Itwill be appreciated that the invention could be applied to television orradio systems. For the sake of clarity, however, the specific embodimentis described with reference to a television system.

FIG. 1 shows a television 1 that is operable to communicate with a settop box 2 via a RF link and a SCART cable. Each of the television 1 andthe set top box 2 is controllable by its own dedicated remote control.The television 1 may also, optionally, be connected to a video recorder.In order to provide an EPG, a processor is provided. This can be locatedin either of the set top box 2 or in the television 1 itself.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a television that is adapted to implement aretrospective EPG. This includes a CPU 3 that is connected to a data bus4 and able to communicate with a flash RAM 5, a DRAM 6, an IR receiver 7for receiving user selections from the television remote control, a realtime clock 8 (RTC), an on-screen display generator 9 for generating theEPG, a teletext or P3.1 decoder 10, a PDC/WS decoder 11 and aprogrammable tuner 12. Software for generating the electronic programguide is stored in the DRAM 6 and television listings data is stored ineither of the flash RAM 5 or the DRAM 6. The CPU 3 uses the EPG softwareand the listings data to generate and send signals to the on-screendisplay generator 9, thereby to cause the EPG to be displayed on screen.Typically, this is done in response to a user command which is receivedat the IR receiver 7.

Connected to the programmable tuner 12 is a PAL/SECAM video decoder 13,which is in turn connected to a video scaler 14 that feeds signals to avideo mixer 15. Also connected to the video mixer 15 is the on-screengenerator 9, so that EPG and other such data can be mixed with the videosignal for display on the television screen.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a set top box that is adapted to implement aretrospective EPG. As described above for the television of FIG. 2, theset top box of FIG. 3 includes a CPU 17 that is connected to a data bus18 and able to communicate with a flash RAM 19, a DRAM 20, an IR,receiver 21 for receiving user selections from the set top box remote, areal time clock (RTC) 22, an on-screen display generator 23 forgenerating the EPG, a teletext or P3.1 decoder 24 and a programmabletuner 25. As before, software for generating the electronic programguide is typically stored in the DRAM 20 and television listings data isstored in either the flash RAM 19 or DRAM 20. The CPU 17 uses thesoftware and the listings data to generate and send signal to theon-screen display generator 23, thereby to cause the EPG to be displayedon screen. Typically, this is done in response to a user command whichis received at the IR receiver 21.

Connected to the programmable tuner 25 is a PAL/SECAM video decoder 26,which is in turn connected to a video scaler 27 that feeds signals to avideo mixer 28. Also connected to the mixer 28 is the on-screen displaygenerator 23. The EPG is displayed by generating a video signal usingthe OSD 23 and combining it with the TV video signal before re-encodingand modulating to give an RF output or, alternatively/additionally,outputting directly in RGB or CVBS form to the TV via a SCART connector.

Television listings data for the EPG is typically downloaded in thevertical blanking interval (VBI) of a pre-determined channel and storedwithin the EPG system in the Flash RAM 5, 19 in advance of a user'sinteraction within the EPG System. This is the so called “cache” method.Alternatively, listings data may be broadcast repetitively,again-typically in the VBI of a pre-determined channel, and downloadedto the EPG system during interaction with the user. This is the socalled “carousel” method. In either case, the CPU 3, 18 of FIGS. 2 and 3is operable to execute a firmware program within memory that causes itto power up from standby when triggered by the real time clock 8, 22 orby a user selection.

After power up, the CPU 3, 18 causes the programmable television tunerto tune the television channel carrying the EPG listings data andreceive the downloaded television listings. During the download period,the VBI portion of the video signal for each line in each video rasteris converted to a bit stream by the VBI data slicer and further decodedto extract the service data. In the embodiment described this isperformed by decoding according to the WST Packet 31 IDL-A and IDL-Bdata formats. After decoding, this data is stored in DRAM and/or Flashmemory and selectively processed as described earlier.

Each program listing datum that is downloaded typically includes thefollowing:

-   -   an event ID, which is indicative of a unique broadcast event        (e.g. live coverage of a sports event);    -   a title ID, which is indicative of the show title;    -   flags that are indicative of the broadcast format, e.g.        PAL/stereo etc;    -   a descriptive/narrative text that describes the program;    -   a theme ID, which identifies the theme of the program, e.g.        sports or film or soap opera etc;    -   a show ID which includes a series ID and, where appropriate, an        episode ID;    -   a time ID, which includes start and stop times for the program;    -   a channel ID that is indicative of the channel of the program;

An example of a listing datum is shown in FIG. 4.

In prior art systems, television listings associated with pastbroadcasts are not downloaded or are deleted from memory as soon as thetelevision broadcast is finished. In order to implement a retrospectiveguide, however, it is important that the EPG has access to data on pastbroadcasts. In order to ensure this, in the case of the cache method,each listing datum is retrospective for a pre-determined retentionperiod after the program is broadcast, before it is erased. In thiscase, retrospective data is identified by comparing the start and stoptimes in the listing datum with the time indicated by the real timeclock or by receiving a real time signal. For the carousel method,broadcast of each program's listing continues for the retention periodafter the program itself has been broadcast. Listings that refer to suchpreviously broadcast programs are referred to hereafter as“retrospective” listings. Listings that relate to programs to bebroadcast in the future are referred to as “future” listings. In thisway, television listing information for past programs is made availableto the user for a pre-determined time after the programs are finished.

Upon completion of a cache download of the listings data, the CPU 3, 18scans through each program identifier belonging to the retrospectivelisting data to determine whether a match exists with the identifiersbelonging to the future listings data. Each retrospective listing datumwhere a match is found is tagged with a non-null numerical data pointerto the future listing, for example the program identifier shown in FIG.5, which uniquely points to a single item of program content (e.g.“Citizen Kane”) or series/episode combination (“New Avengers”, episode6). Otherwise, if a match is not found, the pointer is tagged with anull value. When the matching process is complete, unmatchedretrospective listings data may optionally be erased to conserve memory.

A similar process occurs for the case of carousel downloading. In thiscase, some or all of the broadcast retrospective listings data aredownloaded. The CPU 3, 18 then scans through each program identifierbelonging to the retrospective listing data to determine whether a matchexists with the identifiers belonging to the future listings data. Thisoccurs in real time as the future listings data is being received.Again, each matched retrospective listing datum is tagged with anon-null numerical data pointer to a future listing.

Once the appropriate retrospective and future listings data is received,the CPU 3, 18 can construct the retrospective EPG in response to a userselection of the guide. The preferred method of display is as an arrayor grid of irregular cells 30, where each cell denotes a retrospectiveor a future listing whose length along one dimension represents aprogram's duration. This is shown in FIG. 6.

Each cell 30 of the EPG of FIG. 6 is marked with the program's title.The EPG is responsive to commands which are typically received from aremote control, associated with either of the set top box or thetelevision. A user presses up, down, left or right cursor keys on aremote control unit to switch focus backwards or forwards between cellsin time in one dimension (vertical columns or horizontal rows of cells)and, optionally, through channels in another dimension (horizontal rowsof cells or vertical columns respectively). The cell under focus isdifferentiated in colour, shading or style from unfocussed cells. Aportion of the descriptive and/or narrative information of the listingsinformation, that corresponds to the program denoted by the cell underfocus, is displayed in a second area that does not overlap the grid ofcells, for example at the top of the guide as shown in FIG. 6.

The user may activate either a watch or record process for the programcell of focus. Systems for doing this are known and so will not bedescribed herein in detail. In the present invention, however, watch orrecord functions can be activated for a past or a future program, bypressing a key on the remote control unit that corresponds to therespective function. In the case of past programs, the CPU identifiesthe datum listing for the selected past program and looks for the futurelistings data pointer, which points to the listing for the futureprogram that corresponds to the selected retrospective listing. Oncethis future listing is identified, it is used to set up the functionselected by the viewer. When a future program is selected, the listingassociated with that program is itself used to set up the functionselected by the user. In this way, on receipt of a user selection theCPU is operable to control the system to automatically set up thenecessary hardware to carry out the requested function, regardless ofwhether the program selected is a past or future broadcast.

The EPG can be generated in such a manner as to allow users to scrollseemlessly between past and future programs, as shown in FIG. 6.Alternatively, the EPG may be adapted to present and future listings asa default setting and include an interactive “history” or “missed”button, which when selected causes the CPU to generate and cause thedisplay of a dedicated past programs EPG. In either case, prior topresenting a program listing datum on screen, the EPG system determineswhether its pointer to a future listing datum is non-null. If so, thecell is differentiated in appearance from cells which represent programsthat are not definitely to be repeated (e.g. by displaying it in adifferent shade, colour, border etc.), thereby making past programs thatare to be repeated, readily identifiable by viewers. The CPU causes auser selectable interactive hot-key button to be displayed thatrepresents a watch and/or record function that is activated by the userpressing a corresponding key on a remote control unit.

When a user selects a watch or record function, the EPG system looks upthe future listing datum that is pointed to by the retrospective listingpointer and marks it for recording by setting a logical data flagassociated with it in non volatile memory for later access by the watchand/or record functions. Alternatively, the time and channel of thefuture program is committed to non-volatile memory. Optionally, cellsmay change appearance in order to signify that a watch/record functionhas been selected.

The system is additionally adapted to allow a user to select the watchand/or record function for retrospective listing cells whose programsare not definitely to be repeated. In this case, user selectable hot-keybuttons representing watch and/or record functions are displayed to thescreen also for these cells. Where the cell under focus is notdefinitely to be repeated, the CPU causes the retrospective listing'sprogram identifier to be stored to non-volatile memory together with anidentifier for the type of operation to be performed (e.g. record,watch). Additionally, descriptive listings information (such as title,text description) may be stored alongside the identifier in order toenable a facility for users to review and cancel programs that they haveset to record and/or watch. During each successive download of futurelistings data, the EPG system compares the stored retrospectivelisting's program identifier with the downloaded information andattempts to find a match between that stored retrospective listingidentifier and those of the future listings. If in time a suitable matchis found, the function selected by the user is activated.

In addition to accessing schedule information using the EPG of FIG. 6,the system is operable to allow a user to search for a program accordingto its theme (e.g. sports, movies). This is typically done by pressingkeys on a remote control unit to focus on a cell that denotes a theme ofinterest. To enable this, the EPG of FIG. 6 includes an interactive“search” button, which when selected presents the user with varioustheme options that are available. As shown in FIG. 7, these may includemovies, sport and children and additionally news, gardening cooking etc.When a user selection of one of the theme options is received by theCPU, a list of further more detailed options is presented. FIG. 7 showsan example of a list that is presented when the “sports” option isselected. In this case, the further selections that are availableinclude:

-   -   all    -   football    -   tennis    -   motorsport    -   boxing    -   skiing.

Included in the interface of FIG. 7 is an interactive “missed” button,which when selected causes the CPU to search for and display programsmeeting the selected theme criteria and which were broadcast in thepast.

Upon selecting a desired cell in the interface of FIG. 7, the EPG systemdisplays another interface that has an array of further cellscorresponding to programs that belong to the selected theme. Forexample, if the “all” option of FIG. 7 is selected, the CPU searches allof the retrospective and the future listings and presents a list of theprograms identified, as shown in FIG. 8. A portion of the descriptiveand/or narrative of the listings information, that corresponds to theprogram denoted by the cell under focus, is displayed in a second areathat does not overlap the listings array. As before, to change focusbetween the cells the system is adapted to recognise commands from theremote control, which commands are generated by pressing the appropriatekeys. In particular, the watch or record function for the program infocus can be selected by pressing a key on the remote control unit thatcorresponds to that function.

As another example, if the “football” option of FIG. 7 is selected, theCPU searches all of the retrospective and the future listings andpresents a list of the programs identified, as shown in FIG. 9. If the“missed” button is then selected, the CPU searches the listingspresented to identify and cause the display of those that correspond toretrospective listings information. An example of this is shown in FIG.10. As before, programs that are to be repeated in the future arehighlighted, e.g. “Football Italia” in FIG. 10, so that if desired, theuser can select that future repeat for watching or recording. This isdone by moving the cursor onto the desired program and selecting the“schedule” option. It should be noted, however, that the only programthat is definitely to be repeated in the EPG of FIG. 10 is “FootballItalia”.

When the desired program is highlighted and the schedule optionselected, the screen shown in FIG. 11 is presented to the viewer. Theviewer is then given the option of either selecting the program forwatching or recording. If the viewer selects “record”, the CPUautomatically sets up the system to record the selected program. If theviewer selects “watch”, the CPU automatically sets up the system togenerate an icon for presenting to the viewer prior to broadcast of theselected program, thereby to alert the viewer the imminent broadcast ofthe program. Alternatively, the system could be adapted to automaticallycause the television to tune to the selected program at the time ofbroadcast.

By providing a retrospective EPG, the user has the option of identifyingprograms that they missed for possible future viewing or recording onanother occasion. This enhances the functionality of the EPG andprovides the user with an easy way of selecting and viewing desiredprograms. This is advantageous.

Embodiments of the electronic program (EPGs) embodying the invention areresponsive to commands that may be received from a remote controlassociated with the television or set-top box (STB). A preferred EPGshows a display comprising a plurality of labelled cells, some of whichare “interactive” in the sense that a user may initiate “actions”associated with them. Only one of said cells, the “focussed” cell, isinteractive at a given time. The focussed, interactive cell isdifferentiated from the other interactive cells by means of rendering itdifferently in some visual way, e.g. by giving it a different colourfont or background, or some combination of these and other methods. Auser may choose which interactive cell to place in focus by “navigating”to it by pressing up, down, left and right on a remote control unit.

Keys may be pressed directly on the remote control to perform actionsrelevant to the focused cell, and include four “hot” keys coloured red,green, blue and yellow whose action labels are displayed inset withintheir on-screen graphical key representations on an action menu.

FIG. 12 shows an example of an on-screen display that is presented asthe first “home” page 100 of an electronic program guide (EPG) embodyinga further aspect of the invention when an EPG key on a user's televisionremote control is pressed. This displays the EPG in “Telecast” modewhere telecast television programs are plotted as program title labelledcells against scheduled time and telecast channel.

The home page 100 includes a “picture-in-graphic” box 120, one or moreadvertisement panels 140, an action menu 160 comprising a plurality ofaction labels, an information panel 180, a menu bar 200, a channel panel220 consisting of channel icon cells 230 and a program title grid 240.

The actions available through the action menu 160 on the home page 100comprise a “watch” option 260, a “record” option 280, a “channels”option 300 and a “My TV” option 320. The action menu 160 may be locatedat the top of the page spaced horizontally across the display. Theinformation panel 180 may be located below the action menu 160 on thedisplay and may display textual information pertinent to the focusedcell. This textual information contains program notes (e.g. synopsis,mono, telecast channel, duration) where the focused cell corresponds toa program. Otherwise it corresponds to descriptive, explanatory text(typically termed “context help”) to assist usage of features associatedwith the focused cell.

The menu bar 200 may be located below the information panel 180 and iscoloured blue or otherwise rendered in a distinctive style to denotethat it is associated with the EPG “Telecast” operating mode. The menubar comprises a row of cells denoting sub-operating modes: “Grid” 340,“Search” 360, “Schedule” 380 and “Info” 400. The “program title” grid240 comprises an array of cells 420, each cell carrying a differentprogram title. The cells 420 may be of varying horizontal lengths, thelength of each cell 420 denoting the duration of the program whose titleis displayed in the cell. Each row of cells is allocated to a differentchannel. Different categories of programs such as sports and movies maybe colour coded to assist the user in immediate identification ofdifferent program types. Highlighting a particular program title cell420 results in the information panel 180 displaying program notesconcerning the highlighted program and may include a portion of thelistings information corresponding to the selected program cell, asshown in FIG. 12.

The channel panel 220 comprises a vertical column of single channelcells 230, each cell 230 denoting a telecast channel and carrying eithera channel logo or an alphanumeric call-sign as a means ofidentification. Horizontally adjacent each channel cell are the programcells 42Q carrying the program title of each program scheduled to betelecast on that channel at a particular time. In a position above theprogram title grid 240, there is an indication of the day of the weekand the time of day given in half hour indications 370 enabling the userto identify the start and finish times of particular programs. Anindication of the precise date and current time may also be displayed onscreen.

The picture-in-graphic box 120 displays the program currently beingtelecast on the channel corresponding to the row in which a program cellis in focus, allowing the user to surf channels and simultaneouslyconsult the EPG. Additionally, the channel to which the user is tunedmay be fixed to a particular channel by selecting a “lock” action whenthe desired channel's cell 230 is in focus, as indicated on-screen by apadlock icon 440.

The advertisement panels 140 may contain access (for example, links) tofurther information regarding the subject matter being advertised, andwhich may be obtained in different ways by focussing upon them andactioning them in various advertisement specific ways using the keyscorresponding to the actions or the “select” key.

The home page 100 includes the currently tuned channel and displaysprograms starting from the current time. A user may press a right orleft cursor key on the remote control to scroll the display of programsto be telecast ahead or back in time, and press the up or down cursorkeys to scroll the display up or down within a list of telecastchannels.

In a further preferred embodiment, an additional sub-mode feature to the“Telecast” mode is provided whereby it is possible to program futurerecording of programs which the user may have missed previously. Asshown in FIG. 13, the above function is achieved by selecting the “Past”option 440 on the menu bar 200. The information displayed on screenchanges to that which would have been displayed 24 hours previously. Agrid of cells 240 denoting program titles 420 is displayed, thehorizontal length of which denotes the duration of the programconcerned. Cells that match future repeats of the same program storedwithin the EPG schedule memory (that, typically, contain details ofprogram schedules for up to two weeks into the future) may be shown intheir regular program category coded colour, whereas cells correspondingto programs which are not repeated in schedule memory may be shown ingrey with the font in the colour of its program category, as shown inFIG. 13. Highlighting a particular program cell 420 causes thecorresponding program note to be displayed in the information panel 180and the user is provided with the option of setting a future recordingof or a reminder to watch (the “Watch” action) a selected program. Oncethe “Watch” 260 or “Record” 280 action has been selected, the focusedprogram cell is rendered in a different colour, shade or style to enablethe user to see at a glance which programs have been so actioned, asshown in FIGS. 13 a, 13 b. If a program is not scheduled to be repeated,it is possible for the user to program the system to record the desiredprogram, should the program ever be repeated in the future.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the recorded programmay be stored to, for example, Flash memory, or DRAM, or a bulknon-volatile store such as a hard disk or optical storage device.

In a further preferred embodiment, the EPG may be switched from the“Telecast” mode shown in FIG. 12 to a “My TV” mode as shown in FIG. 14.This is achieved by pressing the key on the remote control correspondingto the “My TV” action 320 or, alternatively, by pressing a fixed key onthe remote control that is labelled for the purpose.

It is possible to return to the on-screen display of the “My TV” modehome page at any time during use of the EPG in “My TV” mode by selectingthe “Home” action 640, as shown in FIG. 14 a et sec. Whilst on therespective home page, display of the “Home” label is replaced by displayof the “Telecast” 330 or “My TV” 320 actions to switch between the EPG'stwo operating modes “My TV” and “Telecast” respectively.

In “My TV” mode, the home page displayed on screen shows a differentcolour (red) menu bar 200 from that displayed in the “Telecast” mode.The menu bar 200 displays the following “My TV”'s submodes: “Catalogue”460, “Box Office” 480, “Info” 500, and “Editor” 520. Further “My TV”sub-modes may be viewed by using the right and left cursor keys on theremote control to scroll along the menu bar 200 and thereby revealfurther sub-modes. On screen arrows 530 indicate whether there arefurther options available to be accessed by scrolling right or leftrespectively.

At any time, only one of the sub-modes denoted on the menu bar may beactive. The user activates a particular sub-mode by moving focus to acell on the menu bar 200 that corresponds to a desired sub-mode and thenswitches focus away from the cell in a downward direction. While nolonger in focus, the cell corresponding to the active sub-mode remainsdisplayed differently to other sub-mode cells to denote the sub-mode theEPG is in.

Highlighting the “Catalogue” cell 460, as shown in FIG. 14, causes ablock of program title cells 420 and/or program series title cells 430to be displayed on screen corresponding to those programs or programepisodes of a series which have been recorded, and stored, for example,to flash memory, DRAM, or bulk non-volatile storage such as a hard diskor optical storage device.

The program and series title cells are presented together inalphabetical order. Programs and series are distinguished on-screen viatheir status icon 880 according to whether they have “kept” or “unkept”status. Programs or program episodes within series that are marked“unkept” are automatically deleted in cases where, the unused storagespace (for example disk space) is insufficient to make a new recording.In such cases, the oldest unkept program (i.e. which was recorded first)is deleted. The horizontal cell lengths of the program cells 420represent the durations of the programs concerned. This is useful togive users a quick at-a-glance appreciation for the duration ofprograms. Moreover such methods of representation must accommodate allpermutations of short and long program durations displayed at the sametime. For example, simultaneous display to scale of a cell depicting a 5minute news bulletin may be impractical alongside a cell depicting, say,a 6 hour rock conceit because the horizontal scale of the news bulletincell may be too small to accommodate the width of its title.

In a preferred embodiment, the scaling of the horizontal time axis ispartially adaptive to the displayed program with the longest duration.Two sets of time marker and tick 960 located above the program cellslabel the mid and end duration axis points. In cases where the longestdisplayed program duration equals or exceeds an upper threshold duration(preferably 2 hours), the end axis duration label 970 is marked with theupper threshold duration and all program cell widths are representedaccordingly. Cells whose durations exceed the upper threshold durationare displayed as “cut-off”, where their right edges are depicted to showthat their true duration spills beyond the upper threshold tick, asillustrated by reference numeral 990 in FIG. 14. In cases where thelongest displayed program duration is less than a lower thresholdduration (preferably 1 hour), the end axis duration label is marked withthe lower threshold duration and all program cell widths are representedaccordingly (not shown).

A viewer's progress into playing a partially viewed program may be showngraphically by rendering the played segment of the program cell bar 420in a different colour, shade or style compared to the un-played segment.Or, alternatively, the boundaries between played and un-played segmentsmay be marked with a line, tick or some other symbol (not shown).

The program title cells 420 and series title cells 430 may be colourcoded by theme category (such as sport, movies and children) to providethe user with an instant means of identifying the category to which aprogram or series relates. Highlighting a particular program title cell420 causes the relevant program note to be displayed in the informationpanel 180, as shown in FIG. 14 a where the focused cell title is“Aerobics Oz Style”. The program note information displayed in “My TV”mode may include details 730 of if, and, if so, when the program isscheduled to be deleted and/or other information such as program labelslike stereo, subtitles or black/white (FIGS. 14 a, 14 c, 14 d, 14 e, 14f, 16, 16 a, 18 b, 21 b, 22 a).

While a program title cell 420 or episode title cell 450 is in focus,still frames from the program's or episodes' video track are displayedin sequence to the picture-in-graphic window 120. The display of eachframe persists for a short period or a second to a few seconds before itis replaced by the next in the sequence. Once the last frame in thesequence is played, the display rotates back to the first frame and soforth until the user moves focus away from the program or series cell.The frames may be snap-shots taken from the program or series episodes'video at regular intervals of a minute to 10 minutes, or they may be keyframes selected by some other means. A moving marker or indicator tick590 within a program title cell 420 or episode title cell 450 may showthe time within the program to which the currently displayed framerelates, as shown in FIG. 14 a.

The user may cause the program corresponding to the cell in focus to beplayed to the full screen by pressing the “OK” or “Play” key on theremote. Alternatively or additionally, an action label “Play” may bedisplayed in the action menu. Both the “pause” and “stop” keys on theremote causes playing of the program to stop and be displaced by the EPGdisplay in “My TV” mode, “Catalogue” sub-mode, with the cellcorresponding to the played program in focus. In the case where thePause button was pressed, a “Resume” action 930 may be displayed toallow the user to resume viewing. This is useful to the user because itimmediately causes display of information that is likely to be mostpertinent to another play selection. Other keys or key combinations forthe actions “Reverse”, “Fast Reverse”, “Forward” and “Fast Forward” maybe included on the handset and may be operable both on a program playedback in full screen video and on a program displayed inpicture-in-graphic mode, corresponding to the program title cell 420 orepisode title cell 450 in focus, using the EPG “My TV”, “Catalogue”sub-mode.

The “Keep” action 720 is displayed where an “unkept” program or seriestitle cell is in focus, as shown in FIG. 14 b. A user may cause anunkept program or series title cell that is in focus to be “kept” byselecting the “Keep” action 720. In such cases, selecting the “Keep”action causes the program or series title cell 420 to be redisplayed,still in focus, within the stack of ‘kept’ programs with its preciselocation depending on the time and date of recording (the latestrecorded program on top and the earliest recorded program at the bottomof the list), with the “Keep” action label replaced by the “Release”action label 920 (FIGS. 14 c, 14 d). Simultaneously the relevant portion730 of its program or series note 180 is updated and re-displayed. Ifthere is insufficient unused storage space (for example disk space) fora new telecast program, additional space is found by deleting the oldestrecorded, unkept program.

An “Erase” action 900 appears when a program title cell 420 or episodetitle cell 450 is highlighted while the EPG is in “MY TV” mode and“Catalogue” sub-mode (FIGS. 14 a, 14 b, 14 c). When the “Erase” action900 is selected a message 750 is displayed on screen in the informationpanel 180 requiring the user to confirm that he wishes to erase therecorded program. This is shown, for example, in FIG. 15. The user mayconfirm his intention by pressing the “OK” key on the remote control, inwhich case the recorded program is deleted. In the event that the userdecides not to proceed with erasing the selected program, he may ignorethe message and continue to navigate through other cells, causingdisplay of the message to be removed.

Status icons 880 (FIGS. 14, 14 a, 14 b, 14 c) communicate at-a-glancethe status of each program title cell 420, series title cell 430, orepisode title cell 450 to indicate whether it is kept or unkept, andwhether it represents a television recording or a recording from anothersource (e.g. a broadcast radio program) and whether they represent asingle program event or a series of programs. When the status icon 880is in focus, the information panel 180 shows technical, non-contentrelated information associated with the program such as recordingquality, length of recording, channel, time and date when the recordingis scheduled to be made as well as if and, when the program may bedeleted, as shown in FIG. 16.

A “series” is a plurality of programs that share a main title.Individual programs within the series are referred to as episodes. Whilethe EPG is in “MY TV” mode and “Catalogue” sub-mode, as shown in FIGS.14 a, 14 b, 14 c, multiple episodes of a series are depicted using oneseries title cell 430 that bears a common series title. A series titlecell 430 may be displayed in a different style compared to a programcell 420 (not shown). Alternatively they may be distinguished by theirstatus icons 880.

The length of a series title cell 430 corresponds to the sum of thelengths of each recorded episode and is displayed according to the samecut-off rules previously described for program cells whose durationexceeds an upper threshold. The representation of the status icon 880 isaccording to the first episode to be deleted, if any. For example, if aseries is comprised of three individual episodes records, two of whichhave been ‘kept’ and one of which will be automatically deleted, thestatus icon will indicate that a deletion will follow in due course.

When the status icon 880 of a series title cell 430 is in focus, theinformation panel 180 shows, where possible, a summary of theinformation parameter associated with the recorded episodes. Forexample, if four episodes were recorded in “fine” quality and one in“basic” quality, then information panel 180 may contain an extract“Quality: 4×Fine, 1×Basic”. As another example, information panel 180may refer to only the shortest and longest episode durations (notshown).

Information and actions concerning individual episodes are accessed byfocusing upon the series program title cell 430 (FIG. 14 b) andselecting it by pressing the OK button. A new display, as described inFIG. 16 a, is then shown that lists individual episode title cells 450for the selected series together with their series title 890, associatedstatus icons 880, relevant action buttons 160 and episode program notes180. Activating the action button “Back” 390 will cause the display torevert to the previous screen as shown in FIG. 14 b.

If free storage (for example, disk) space for recording exists, a celllabelled “Unused” 860 is displayed beneath the block of program orseries title cells as illustrated in FIGS. 14 b, 14 c. A user may focuson the “Unused” cell 860 to cause information concerning the amount offree disk space to be displayed in the information panel 180 (FIG. 17).

With the “Catalogue” sub-mode cell in focus, a user may select fromvarious search criteria via hot ‘keys’ on the action menu 160. These mayinclude “Theme” 840, “Date” 820 and “Channels” 800 (FIG. 14). Uponpressing the “Theme” action button 840, the user may search for recordedprograms from various categories such as Movies, Sports and Childrens'programs (FIG. 18). When a user makes a selection from a menu ofvertically listed sub-categories 600 (FIGS. 18, 18 a), a new screen isdisplayed (FIG. 18 b) showing all programs recorded that belong to thechosen sub-category. A header 830 may display information about thechosen selected category and sub-category. Upon pressing the actionbutton “Menu” 850 (FIG. 18 b) the display will revert to the previousmenu page (FIG. 18 a)

Upon pressing the “Date” action button 820 with the “Catalogue” sub-modecell in focus (FIG. 14), the user may search for programs recordedduring a particular time period. FIG. 19 describes how, responsive toselection of the “Date” action, a vertical arrangement of cells isdisplayed beneath the horizontal sub-mode menu bar. The first cell,closest to the sub-mode menu bar is labelled “All” and is followedbeneath by other cells labelled with historic date ranges ofprogressively increasing durations (e.g. “Yesterday”, “Last Week”, “LastMonth”, “Year 2001”) with distance from the sub-mode menu bar.

The user may use the cursor keys to change the date range cell underfocus (FIG. 19 a).

Responsive to selection of a date range cell that corresponds to a rangelonger than a day, a successive group of cells is displayed that dividesthe selected date range into cells corresponding to shorternon-overlapping date sub-ranges. Additionally a cell is displayed infocus corresponding to the full duration of the previously selected datarange (FIG. 19 b). Date ranges that correspond to periods in the futureare greyed out or not displayed at all, and cannot be focused upon (notshown).

FIGS. 19 a and 19 b describe an example where a user has selected “Year2001” to cause display of sub-ranges “All”, “Jan”, “Feb” etc. and wherethe “All” cell is immediately placed in focus. FIG. 19 c describes thecase where a month cell in FIG. 19 b has been selected to cause the cell“All” and a cell for each day of the selected month to be displayed.

Simultaneous to focusing on a date sub-range, titles of programs thatcorrespond to the date range are displayed together with other optionalinformation (such as date of recording or telecast channel) in theinformation panel 180. FIG. 19 shows an example where a user has put the“ALL” cell in focus. The user may further select a focused date rangecell by pressing the remote control “OK” key to cause display of avertical arrangement of program cells that correspond to programsrecorded during the selected date range, as illustrated in FIG. 14 a forthe case of selecting the “All” cell shown in FIG. 19. The verticalarrangement 240 of program cells 420 or episode cells 450 lists programtitles in sequence according to whether they are kept or unkept. Cellscorresponding to kept programs are displayed together uppermost inreverse chronological order of time of recording (i.e. the most recentlyrecorded program title is displayed at the top of the block of keptprogram cells). Unkept programs are displayed below the “kept” programsin reverse chronological order according to when they were recorded.(i.e. the most recently recorded program title being displayed at thetop of the block of unkept program cells).

The user may use the cursor keys to navigate focus between programcells. Simultaneous to focusing on a cell, contextual help informationand/or program notes corresponding to the focused cell are displayed inthe information panel 180.

The “Up” action 940 may be selected for a focused program cell 420 orepisode program cell 450 to promote it up through the program title grid240 and thereby to demote its position in the queue for deletions neededto make space for new program recordings (FIGS. 14 e, 14 f). Each pressof the “Up” action 940 causes the focused episode program cell 450 to bedisplayed in a position swapped with the unkept program above it andmaintained in focus. Simultaneously the relevant portion 730 of itsprogram note 180 may be updated and re-displayed (FIGS. 14 e, 14 f).

A “Release” action 920 is displayed where the program cell in focus hasbeen kept (FIG. 14 a). Selecting the “Release” action causes the cell infocus to be demoted vertically down in the program block 420 to the topof the unkept program block. Simultaneously the relevant portion 730 ofits program note 180 may be updated and re-displayed (not shown).

Selecting the “Channels” action in the “Catalogue” sub-mode causes agrid 740 of channel cells 620 to be displayed on screen, each cellcarrying the logo of a particular channel, as shown in FIG. 20. The usermay use the cursor keys to change focus between the channel cells 620.Simultaneous to which, contextual help information and/or program notescorresponding to details of the programs that have been recorded on theparticular channel are displayed in the information panel 180 (FIG. 21a).

Selecting a focused channel logo cell 620 causes a vertical arrangement240 of program title cells 420 or episode program cells 450 to bedisplayed denoting the programs which have been recorded from theselected channel on the storage medium, for example disk, as shown inFIG. 21 b. Highlighting a particular program cell 420 or episode programcell 450 results in the relevant program note being displayed in theinformation panel 180. The channel logo 950 or any other form ofrepresentation of the relevant channel may be displayed to indicatewhich channel has been selected.

In a further preferred embodiment, the system includes a sub-mode, “BoxOffice”, for receiving and recording programs and related program orseries note information that may be addressed by a television programservice provider to a particular set-top-box (STB). These recordedprograms and series may be accessed by focusing on the “Box Office”sub-mode 480 on the menu bar 200, as shown in FIG. 22, from within “MyTV” mode. User interaction with programs, series, episodes and other EPGfunctionality is similar to the functionality described for the“Catalogue” sub-mode except that the recording of programs and thedisplay of the program title cells associated with them is managed byand at the discretion of a service provider. Consequently, a user doesnot have facility to “Keep”, “Erase” or adjust a recorded program'sposition in a queue for deletion in order to make way for a newrecordings using the “Up” action described for the “Catalogue” sub-mode.

In the preferred embodiment, the service provider causes automatic,unattended recording of certain programs or series of episodesconsidered to be of interest to the user. The titles corresponding tothese are displayed in the program cells 420 or series cells 430.

At the option of the service provider, a program may be designated“pay-per-view” and incur a one-off payment before it is viewed. A “Buy”action 700 is displayed for such programs when they are in focus. Uponselection by the user of the “Buy” action 700 the user may be requestedto confirm the purchase and identify himself by entering a personalidentification number (PIN) using keys on the remote. Thereafter therecorded program is responsive to playing in the same manner using the“Play” and “Stop” keys as described for the “Catalogue” sub-mode (notshown).

In a further preferred embodiment, means may be provided whereby theuser can access detailed information regarding subjects such as theweather, news, sport or films. This feature is accessed by focusing uponthe cell corresponding to the “Info” sub-mode 500 on the menu bar 200,as shown in FIG. 23. Information is displayed as articles. Each articlecomprises one or more pages of hypertext and graphical informationdisplayed in the expanded information panel 190 of FIGS. 23 a, 23 b, 23c.

Selection of the “Info” sub-mode causes the on-screen display of variousinformation categories, such as news, or sports, or weather. Thesubsequent selection of a particular category results in the display ofa list of related sub-categories 690, each denoted by a particular cell,as shown in FIG. 23. Each information category is represented as avertical column or block 640 that is subdivided into horizontal, rowlike cells 660 that represent either articles 680 or sub-categories 690of articles 680. An article cell 630 is labelled with the title of thearticle 680 that it represents whereas a subcategory cell 650 islabelled with the title of the subcategory 690 that it represents.

A user may cause an article to be displayed by navigating focus to itsrespective cell and selecting it for display by pressing the “OK” key onthe remote. The article comprises text and graphics information 670 withlinks 710 to positions within the same or different articles 680. A link710 may be represented by a text or graphics object which, when placedin focus by the user, is rendered differently using a border, reversecolour or some other style of highlighting as illustrated in FIG. 23 a.Links may point to different types of objects within the EPG, such as toa program title cell, or to an information article or page. The user maynavigate focus between links by using the remote cursor keys.

The type of object pointed to by a link may be represented by the colouror style of the rendering of the link's display. This is useful toassist a user in making a decision whether to select a link. Forexample, a segment of text that links to a program cell 420 may bedisplayed in a red font, while links to advertisements may be shown in agreen font (FIGS. 23 b, 23 f and 23 c, 23 d).

“Scroll” links 760 and 770 may be displayed in the right margin ofarticle pages to assist the user to page up or down quickly betweenarticles and article pages. Focusing upon and selecting a scroll linkdepicted as a single up pointing arrow 770 or single down pointing arrow770 causes either the previous or following article page within the samearticle to be displayed respectively. Focusing upon and selecting ascroll link depicted as a double up pointing arrow 760 or double downpointing arrow 760 causes the first page in either the previous orfollowing article to be displayed respectively, where the ordering ofarticles is determined according to the order in which their articletitle cells 630 (FIG. 23 h) are displayed (for example shown in FIGS. 23a, 23 b, 23 c).

An article page may contain “Telecast” or “My TV” program links, or“Advertisement” links. FIGS. 23 c and 23 d describe how “Telecast” link780 points to a particular program title cell 420 in “Grid”240, whereuser selection of it causes the EPG to change display to “Telecast” modein “Grid” sub-mode with the linked program cell 420 in focus. A “Back”action label 390 is displayed to allow the user to return to the articlepage with the link back in focus, as illustrated in FIG. 23 d. A “My TV”program link has the same functionality as a “Telecast” program linkexcept that it points to a recorded program title cell or series titlecell displayed in “My TV” mode and “Catalogue” sub-mode (not shown).

Further embodiments of program links may cause the EPG to switch to anyspecified mode, sub-mode or display mode according to the values ofparameters embedded within the link object. For example, a program linkto a program to be telecast may require that it be displayed with itsprogram notes expanded 190 such as described in FIG. 23 e. Otherembodiments to program links may instead or additionally cause certainspecified actions to be performed on the program pointed to by the linkaccording to the values of parameters embedded within the link object.For example, selection of a program link may cause the pointed toprogram to be recorded (not shown)

An “Advertisement” link 810 (FIG. 23 j) points to an advertisement panel140 where user selection of it causes the EPG to display theadvertisement pointed to (as shown in FIG. 23 f). An action button“Back” 390 will revert the display to the previous screen. Furtherembodiments of advertisement links may cause the EPG to display theadvertisement in any of a number of states according to the values ofparameters embedded in the link object Selection of an advertisementlink 810 may cause the pointed advertisement to be displayed in one ofmultiple possible modes. For example, an advertisement link may haveparameter values embedded within it that cause the advertisement to bedisplayed in an expanded form 190. In another example, the selecting ofan advertisement link may cause the response portion of a home shoppingadvertisement to be partially completed with user order details (notshown).

A subcategory 690 may have one or more articles associated with it. Forexample, the “News” category may contain sub-categories such as, forexample, “UK” or “Europe”. Category and sub-category cells are rendereddifferently in colour, shading, shape or style to article cells (beingdisplayed as a right arrow in FIG. 23). A user may cause the display ofthe article title referred to by a sub-category cell by focussing upon,then selecting it with the “OK” remote key. Pressing the “OK” key causesthe category block 640 to be smooth scrolled to the left, and replacedentirely with the article cells 630 referred to by the focusedsub-category 690 (FIG. 23 g) smooth scrolled into position from theright, with focus switching to the top article 540 as illustrated inFIG. 23 h. The user may use the remote cursor keys to navigate focusbetween article cells, simultaneous to which, excerpts of the focusedarticle may be displayed simultaneously in information panel 180 (notshown). An article may be selected for display by pressing the “OK” keyor the ‘info’ key on the remote control.

Certain article titles and content are time critical or frequentlychanging (for example sports results, weather information or breakingnews). Consequently, they must be downloaded to the STB in real timeimmediately following a user's selection of a category, sub-category orarticle for display. Such titles and content are downloaded into the STBimmediately following their selection by the user from a source pointedto by a broadcast network carousel address, internet URL or some otherform of network pointer that is present in the STB immediately prior tothe user's selection of the article.

The categories, sub-category, title and article content information mayhave been stored on the user's storage medium, for example disk, and maybe individually “addressed” either to a specific user or to a group ofusers for automatic downloading to the storage medium. Addressing isperformed by broadcasting data headers for each item of information(e.g. a category, an article). Contained within each header is a logicalfunction of parameters and variables names that correspond to associateddata values stored within each STB at the point when the expression isevaluated. An example of such an expression is “PostCode=‘SL* ANDVersion=‘123.4’ AND STBFreeMemory>=512” (which would be evaluated trueby STBs with Version ID “123.4” whose postcode locations both have an“SL” prefix and have, say, 512 kBytes or more of free memory). The STBdownloads the header sod executes the logical expression therein todetermine whether it is true or false. The information item isdownloaded if the expression is evaluated as true. Expressions thatrefer to parameters not recognised by a particular type or version ofSTB are evaluated as false.

In the preferred embodiment, information that is not overly timesensitive is broadcast with other EPG information such as programlistings or advertisements three to four times daily and received by theSTB when it is in standby. Other, time sensitive information may bereceived live from a broadcast or downloaded in real-time immediatelyafter it is selected for display by a user. The different sources of theinformation may be denoted visually on screen, for example, articletitles available from a live broadcast carousel may be marked with achannel logo 790 denoting the channel from which they are available(FIG. 23 j) and the maximum time delay before downloading of the articleis complete may be indicated in the information panel 180.

A further information category which may be provided is entitled“Magazine”. This category may provide on-screen access to particularmagazine titles such as TVGuide™, the Radio Times™ and Sky™ that giveprogram reviews and viewing recommendations such as that shown in FIGS.24 to 26. A sponsor's logo 870 may be included for each relevantcategory.

Each magazine title is allocated to a particular subcategory and maycontain multiple articles therein. Similar to that previously describedfor other information categories, the system may be arranged such that aparticular STB downloads only magazines appropriate to its requirementsand that these may be conditionally downloaded to STB non-volatilememory (such as a hard drive or flash memory) where their associatedlogical header expression is evaluated by the STB to be true. Forexample, a requirement for downloading of the Sky™ magazinesub-category, and its articles therein, may be that the EPG isconfigured to include either the “Sky One” or “Sky Sports” channel andthat the STB has in excess of 10 Mbytes of free, non-volatile memory.

The functions of the EPG described above may be implemented using a PVRsystem shown in FIGS. 27 and 28. The PVR 1000 of FIG. 27 receives adigital broadcast transmission 1010 which may contain a number of MPEG2transport streams containing MPEG2 encoded video, audio or dataelementary digital streams. This digital broadcast 1010 may be deliveredto the PVR 1000 by means of a digital satellite transmission, a digitalcable transmission, a digital terrestrial transmission or a digitaltransmission carried on a broadband digital subscriber line (DSL). ThePVR 1000 de-multiplexes and decodes the audio and video streams andpasses them to the TV receiver 1020 by means of a base-band SCARTconnection or via the RF aerial connection by means of a re-modulatedsignal.

The digital broadcast transmission 1010 delivers the TV and Radioservices to the PVR. It also delivers data services including theprogramme listings information required by the electronic programmeguide (EPG). News, weather, sports and other information services may bereceived by the PVR as data services. Advertisement panels and otheradvertising information are received by the PVR as data services.

FIG. 28 shows the internal functional elements of the PVR shown in FIG.27. This comprises a CPU 1200 coupled to volatile (DRAM) 1220,non-volatile (Flash) memory 1230 and program memory 1240. The DRAMmemory 1220 is used to contain temporary information not required aftercycling the STB into and out of a standby or off state. The Flash memory1230 is used mainly to store preloaded data such as programme schedulelistings, but it may also contain any information recovered from thedigital broadcast transmission 1250 at anytime. For example, news, sportor weather information may be extracted from a frequently updatedbroadcast carousel.

The program memory contains the PVR operating software. In a preferredembodiment, the program memory also contains the EPG applicationsoftware. However, the EPG application software maybe received from thedigital broadcast transmission and subsequently stored to flash memory,DRAM or bulk non-volatile storage such as a hard disk or optical storagedevice. In order to utilise bulk non-volatile storage, such as a harddisk 1260, the PVR requires an interface 1270. This would typically bean ATAPI or SCSI hard disk interface, but any popular bulk data storageinterface standard may be applicable.

The PVR contains a programmable tuner 1280, which is connected to thephysical transmission termination. This termination may be a cabletermination, satellite LNB, terrestrial aerial or a broadband digitalsubscriber line terminator (DSL). By means of the internal data bus 1290the EPG can instruct the tuner to receive any MPEG2 transport stream(channel) present on the tuner input, including that stream (channel)carrying the host transmission.

The tuned transport stream is applied to a de-multiplexer 1300, whichenables elementary audio, video and data streams to be extracted.

Video data streams are applied to the MPEG2 video decoder 1310. Theoutput of this decoder is then combined with the on screen display OSD1320 to provide the video signal to the TV display device. The OSD 1320is responsible for displaying all graphical elements of the EPGapplication, including the advertisement panels. The video mix and scalefunction 1330 is capable of scaling the decoder video in order topresent a reduced size live picture within the EPG display. This is thepicture in graphic (PIG) display.

Audio data streams extracted by the de-multiplexer are applied to thedigital audio decoder/driver 1340. This function converts the digitalaudio stream into an analogue signal in order to apply it to theloudspeaker(s) within the TV.

Data streams extracted from the digital broadcast transmission 1250 maybe carrying information such as the programme schedule listings. Duringthe broadcast data preload period and at any other time, thisinformation may be cached in flash memory or transferred to bulk storage(in the case of a PVR).

There is also a real time clock (RTC—not shown) within the PVR.Immediately prior to each data preload period, the RTC generates aninterrupt to the CPU 1200 causing it to wake from the standby state (ifit is already in this state). The CPU then activates those parts of thePVR required to transfer preload data from the digital broadcasttransmission 1250 to flash memory 1230 or bulk storage 1250. Thisincludes instructing the programmable tuner 1390 to tune to thetransport stream (channel) carrier, present on the transmitted data thatcontains the host broadcast transmission.

Many of the functional elements described in FIG. 28 may be combined ona single large-scale integration (LSI) silicon component.

In the case of an Integrated Digital TV (IDTV) all the componentsdescribed in FIG. 28 are resident within the TV chassis.

Various modifications to the embodiments described above may beapparent.

In particular, whilst the preferred embodiments have been described withreference to an STB system, it will be appreciated that the inventioncould be applied either to television, personal video recorder (PVR),video-cassette-recorder (VCR), personal computer (PC) or radio systems.Furthermore, it will be appreciated that the layout of the on-screendisplay and location of the cells may vary from that described above asexamples of preferred systems embodying the invention.

A skilled person will appreciate that variations of the disclosedarrangements are possible without departing from the invention.Accordingly, the above description of a specific embodiment is made byway of example and not for the purposes of limitation. It will be clearto the skilled person that minor modifications can be made withoutsignificant changes to the operation described above.

Reference to means for performing various steps and functions is to beunderstood to include all suitable variants under the doctrine ofequivalents and is not to be limited to the disclosures of the specificembodiments described above.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for using a guide on userequipment, the method comprising: receiving a user input selecting atime period prior to a current time; and in response to receiving theuser input: generating a display that includes a plurality of videolistings corresponding to past transmissions of videos within theselected time period, wherein each of the plurality of video listingscorresponds to a single transmission of an associated video; andvisually distinguishing within the generated display each of theplurality of video listings that corresponds to a past transmission of avideo that is available again from each of the plurality of videolistings that corresponds to a past transmission of a video that is notavailable again, wherein the visually distinguished video listings aredisplayed together with the video listings that are not visuallydistinguished within the generated display, and wherein the videoavailable again is accessible responsive to an input received subsequentto the listings being displayed.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinvisually distinguishing comprises displaying each of the plurality ofvideo listings that corresponds to a past transmission of a video thatis available again in a distinctive shade, color, or border.
 3. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising receiving a user selection of oneof the plurality of video listings within the generated display thatcorresponds to a past transmission of a video that is available again.4. The method of claim 3 further comprising receiving a user request torecord or watch a video corresponding to the selected video listing. 5.The method of claim 3 further comprising automatically recording atransmission of the video corresponding to the user-selected videolisting.
 6. The method of claim 3 further comprising automaticallynotifying the viewer before a transmission of a video corresponding tothe user-selected video listing.
 7. The method of claim 3 furthercomprising automatically notifying the viewer before a transmission of avideo corresponding to the user-selected video listing by displaying anicon a pre-determined time prior to the start of the video.
 8. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising determining, without userintervention, for each listing of the plurality of video listings withinthe generated display, whether said listing corresponds to a pasttransmission of a video that is available again.
 9. The method of claim8 further comprising receiving additional video listings correspondingto transmissions of videos, wherein the determining is performed basedon whether a listing within the generated display matches any of theadditional video listings.
 10. The method of claim 1 further comprisingsearching listings information associated with transmissions of videosavailable again to determine a match between the listings informationand the plurality of video listings corresponding to past transmissionsof videos within the generated display.
 11. The method of claim 1further comprising determining whether a given listing of the pluralityof video listings within the generated display corresponds to a pasttransmission of a given video that is available on-demand, wherein thegiven video listing is visually distinguished in response to determiningthat the given video is available on-demand.
 12. A system for providinga guide on user equipment, the system comprising: a processor configuredto: receive a user input selecting a time period prior to a currenttime; and in response to receiving the user input: generate a displaythat includes a plurality of video listings corresponding to pasttransmissions of videos within the selected time period, wherein each ofthe plurality of video listings corresponds to a single transmission ofan associated video; and visually distinguish within the generateddisplay each of the plurality of video listings that corresponds to apast transmission of a video that is available again from each of theplurality of video listings that corresponds to a past transmission of avideo that is not available again, wherein the visually distinguishedvideo listings are displayed together with the video listings that arenot visually distinguished within the generated display, and wherein thevideo available again is accessible responsive to an input receivedsubsequent to the listings being displayed.
 13. The system of claim 12,wherein the processor is configured to visually distinguish bydisplaying each of the plurality of video listings that corresponds to apast transmission of a video that is available again in a distinctiveshade, color, or border.
 14. The system of claim 12, wherein theprocessor is further configured to receive a user selection of one ofthe plurality of video listings within the generated display thatcorresponds to a past transmission of a video that is available again.15. The system of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configuredto receive a user request to record or watch a video corresponding tothe selected video listing.
 16. The system of claim 14, wherein theprocessor is further configured to automatically record a transmissionof the video corresponding to the selected video listing.
 17. The systemof claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured toautomatically notify the viewer before a transmission of a videocorresponding to the selected video listing.
 18. The system of claim 14,wherein the processor is further configured to automatically notify theviewer before a transmission of a video corresponding to the selectedvideo listing by displaying an icon a pre-determined time prior to thestart of the video.
 19. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor isfurther configured to determine, without user intervention, for eachlisting of the plurality of video listings within the generated display,whether said listing corresponds to a past transmission of a video thatis available again.
 20. The system of claim 19, wherein the processor isfurther configured to receive additional video listings corresponding totransmissions of videos, and wherein the processor is configured todetermine, for each listing of the plurality of video listings withinthe generated display, whether said listing corresponds to a pasttransmission of a video that is available again by determining whether alisting within the generated display matches any of the additional videolistings.
 21. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to search listings information associated with transmissionsof videos available again to determine a match between the listingsinformation and the plurality of video listings corresponding to pasttransmissions of videos within the generated display.
 22. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to determinewhether a given listing of the plurality of video listings within thegenerated display corresponds to a past transmission of a given videothat is available on-demand, and wherein the processor is configured tovisually distinguish the given video listing in response to determiningthat the given video is available on-demand.
 23. The method of claim 1,wherein visually distinguishing each of the plurality of video listingsthat corresponds to a past transmission of a video that is availableagain from each of the plurality of video listings that corresponds to apast transmission of a video that is not available again comprisesvisually distinguishing any listing included in the display thatcorresponds to a past transmission of a video that is available againfrom any listing included in the display that corresponds to a pasttransmission of a video that is not available again.
 24. The system ofclaim 12, wherein the processor is configured to visually distinguisheach of the plurality of video listings that corresponds to a pasttransmission of a video that is available again from each of theplurality of video listings that corresponds to a past transmission of avideo that is not available again by visually distinguishing any listingincluded in the display that corresponds to a past transmission of avideo that is available again from any listing included in the displaythat corresponds to a past transmission of a video that is not availableagain.